This article explains Enrollment-Level Availability Dates, a feature that lets Admins set and lock Access, Expiration, and Due dates directly on an enrollment using the Lock availability toggle. Use this article to understand what the feature does, how to enable and apply it, how locked dates behave, and its current limitations.

Lock Availability Functionality

When Lock availability is applied, the dates you enter on the enrollment take precedence over any availability dates set on the Course, Curriculum, or other enrollment settings. You can set three dates:

• Access Date: when the Course becomes visible to Learners.
• Expiration: when the Course is no longer visible to Learners.
• Due Date: when Learners must complete the Course by.

Where to Find Lock Availability

Lock availability is available on the Enroll Users page, which you can reach from either of the following core reports:

• Courses report: select one or more Courses, then click the Enroll User/Enroll Users action via the righthand side Actions menu.
• Users report: select one or more Users, then click the Enroll User/Enroll Users action via the righthand side Actions menu.

Enabling Lock Availability

Setting up Lock availability takes two steps: a System Admin has to enable the feature once at the Portal level, then any Admin can use it by enabling the toggle for an individual Enroll User action.
 

Enable at the Portal Level

A System Admin enables Lock availability from the Client Settings page using the following steps:

1. Access the Admin Experience (AE).
2. Navigate to Account > Client Settings.
3. Click the Enrollments tile.
   
   
    
4. Set the Lock availability toggle to ON. If the toggle is turned off at a later date, any already created date based enrollments will not be affected.
   
    
5. Click Save.

Lock Dates on an Enrollment

After being enabled for the Portal, Admins can use Lock availability through the Users or Courses report using the following steps:

1. From the Users or Courses report, select one or more Users or Courses.
2. Click the Enroll User/Enroll Users action.
   
   
    
3. Finish entering all Users, Online Courses, and Curricula.
   
   
    
4. At the bottom of the Enroll Users page, set the Lock availability toggle to On.
5. In the Lock availability section, set an Access Date or leave the default, Available immediately.
6. Set an Expiration date or leave the default, Does not expire.
7. Set a Due Date or leave the default, No due date.
   
   
    
8. Click Save. Once saved, the LMS will immediately send enrollment notifications to applicable Users.

Confirm Availability Dates Are Locked

To verify that the dates are locked on a created enrollment:

1. From the Users report, select a Learner for whom an enrollment was created, then click View Enrollments.
2. Select one of the enrollments created in the previous steps, then click Edit Enrollment.
   
   
    
3. Confirm that the availability dates are read-only. An on-screen message reads: Course has locked availability applied, dates cannot be updated.
   
   

How Locked Dates Behave

Enabling Lock availability has no immediate effect. When the enrollments for the selected Users and Courses are created, Absorb applies the following behavior:

• Entered dates override any Online Course or Curriculum defaults.
• Entered dates are not overridden by later update paths, including changes to Online Course or Curriculum settings, bulk updates, Integration Application Programming Interface (API) calls, or other integration features such as connectors and file-based imports.
• Curriculum availability dates normally apply, but if a child Course enrollment for the same Learner has locked dates, the locked date overrides the Curriculum date.
• Date locking remains in effect until the enrollment is complete. It can only be removed by unenrolling Users from the enrollments created with locked dates.
• On a locked enrollment, the availability dates appear as read-only and cannot be edited.

Changing or Removing a Locked Date

Locked dates cannot be edited in place, including when you need to adjust a single Learner's dates for a situation such as a leave of absence. To apply new dates, unenroll the Learner from the enrollment that has the locked dates, then enroll them again with the new dates.

Limitations

Keep the following limitations in mind when using Lock availability:

• Instructor Led Courses (ILCs) are not supported. Lock availability applies to Online Courses and Curricula. ILCs follow a different lifecycle and are scheduled through separate parts of the system.
• Locked dates cannot be edited in place. Changing a date requires unenrolling and re-enrolling the Learner.
• When a Learner purchases a Course Extension via E-Commerce, the Due Date is extended by the number of days purchased.

Frequently Asked Questions

The following answers address common questions about Lock availability.
 

Can I apply Lock availability to a Department or Group, or must I select Users individually?

Departments or Groups cannot be specifically selected, however, the Users report can be filtered by Department or Group before actioning associated Users in bulk.
 

Are Users always selected manually?

Yes. Lock availability is intended for a one-time intersection of a specific cohort of Learners and a set of Courses, rather than recurring training patterns for the same Users and Courses.
 

How do I change or extend a locked date, for example when a Learner goes on leave?

Locked dates cannot be changed directly. Unenroll the Learner from the enrollment that has the locked dates, then enroll them again with the new dates.
 

Do Curriculum availability dates still take precedence over individual Course dates?

Curriculum availability dates normally apply. However, if a child Course enrollment for the same Learner has locked dates, the locked date overrides the Curriculum date.
 

Does Lock availability support Instructor Led Courses (ILCs)?

No. Lock availability applies to Online Courses and Curricula. ILCs follow a different lifecycle and are scheduled through separate parts of the system, so they are not included at this time.

For background on how enrollments work in Absorb, see Enrollment Overview. For help locating and enabling Portal-level settings, see The Client Settings Page.